4.16M yen yearly salary in Tokyo?

Hello there,

Just today I've received a job offer as a software developer in Tokyo. The offer stands for exactly 4,158,000 yen a year and I assume it's gross. This said, I've found out that 30-40% of my monthly net salary would be spent on a rent, which seems awfully high.

I'm a software developer (specialized in C# and web technologies, with experience in Python and Ruby as well) with 7 years of work experience, 28 years old. My Japanese is on conversational level, but it'd be my first job in Japan.

The questions are simple. Is it worth it? What kinda living I could afford for it while still saving something each month?

Thanks in advance ;)

If you're considering the offer, you must be one of those types with a Japan-obession?

If you're very frugal, you can probably save 50,000 or so monthly.

This seems as though it's a reasonably stock standard wage for Japan. It's well above minimum wage and is slightly above english teachers who teach conversational english, but not by much. Accommodation in Tokyo can range wildly in price. A bare bones single room with bathroom in a building without a lift can cost as little as 50,000 yen a month. A normal place closer to 120-150000.....

My prices are 4 years out of wack though as I no longer live in Japan....

since the amount you are offered is so detailed, it may be a minimal (basal) salary, and may not include overtime payment and bonus.

There are no bonuses aside commute expenses coverage.

I'm considering this because it's actually pretty hard to even receive an offer, and most I've seen are actually lower. Perfectly, I'd like a minimum of 6M a year, but I need to consider being new to the market and all the failsafes in case I don't assimilate. So this would be more of a beach-head job, to have a starting point there.

I'm not planning to go frugal tho'.

4,158,000 sounds like quite a fair amount for a newbie of any job just supporting oneself, to me. But a newbie usually doesn't spend 1,247,400 yen/year for a rent. You can find decent places for a single adult for less than 70,000 yen/months plus the initial key money. There's something wrong.

Well, I'm not a noobie per se. Unless you mean newface in Japan. I guess they value local experience much more than abroad one?

I had a friend who worked in IT at Citibank in the US for 10+ years and then was hired in Japan by a contractor to work again for Citibank and his initial salary wasnt even 6 million. So yes, I guess experience in Japan and language skills are requested.
If you can make a living from 4 million yen, then at least you get your initial visa, your initial work experience in Japan and probably in a year or so it will be easier to change jobs. So you can take it as an entry ticket into Japan.

Rent expense depends where you live, how much space you want and if utilities are included. At 35% that is around US$250/week or $1100/month. In a some countries that rent is very affordable and probably what I would need to pay back in my home city in New Zealand.

But Japan pays less for new employees than many other countries. (Example, my daughter gets paid a lot more than that with three years experience in her IT job.) People often don't come to Japan for the high wages.

In Japan, utilities aren't included in rent.
Considering communication barrier your employer and coworkers will have to face because of your Japanese skill, that would be a decent salary, I think.

I have my my utilities included in my rent (electricity, gas, water), so yes, sometimes it is included.

It's not normal because independent residents normally have their own contracts with the electricity company etc.

As far as typical salary of IT software developer is concerned 4M is rock bottom. They are paying you salary of a fresher who comes with no experience

Perhaps you can use this opportunity as a stepping stone to get some exp working in Japan and then switch after an year or so, you will be easily getting 6-8M at that time.
Also Don�ft compare IT salaries with non IT ones, there is no comparison

Yes, I've been thinking of it in exactly this way, an entry ticket so to say and if I don't get more a year later I'll either switch back or come back to Poland. The other option is waiting a year, getting my Japanese closer to fluency and trying again, but I'm pretty sceptical if such option would score me considerably higher salary.

The salary for freshmen doesn't differ by whether the person is an engineer in Japan, because without any career they can't prove they are more useful than, say, a receptionist.
Many companies would welcome a foreign experienced engineer who has no problem with communicating in Japanese and has a history that he could adapt to Japanese culture for years.
Again, you should not hiring a foreigner is a big risk for employers for many reasons.

That is less than half what C# developers make in the U.S. Maybe more like 1/3 comparing to cities with cost of living like Tokyo.

I am surprised that tech work pays so little in Japan.

This is about Japan, not the U.S. Two completely different societies, which makes comparisons meaningless.

I agree with Firason this one - it is meaningless to compare unless you want to simply observe the salary structure is different.

As for the utilities and rent, I also agree it is not common to have it included, but the comment was it didn't occur, when in fact it does and can be a good solution for some people (like me). Do I pay more rent than I need to because I like where I live - maybe, but I also factor in the intangible value that I like my place (and I get to enjoy it four days this month.)

I concur with the other commenters who said that U.S. vs. Japan salaries can't be compared. The advertising/marketing sector in Japan also pays much lower salaries for even experienced professionals who speak business-level Japanese. In Japan, I earned 7.0M JPY/yr with almost eight years of experience and Japanese client-facing abilities. In the U.S., I haven't been offered anything lower than $100K/yr (~11.0M JPY), with larger companies going up to $120K/yr.